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\u201cWhat did you love to do as a child?\u201d I asked my Leo Sun husband. He instantly replied: go to Radio Shack and get the battery of the week, then figure out where to use it. He loved leatherwork (he and I both. I, too, enjoyed visiting the Tandy leather store). He also loved to take apart televisions. He majored in electrical engineering. Today he is a physicist.<\/p>\n
What we loved as a child is what comes naturally to us. It speaks to WHO WE TRULY ARE.<\/p>\n
You know, before you became indoctrinated with the “shoulds” about who you are supposed to be, or not be.<\/p>\n
I was thinking about this as I was outside painting a trellis. I could smell French toast wafting through the air, from someone\u2019s Sunday morning late breakfast. I loved French toast, as a child. I would make it often. The great thing about growing up poor is that we always had stale bread on hand! I enjoyed cooking \u2026and creating. \u00a0But it wasn\u2019t just one thing, for me.<\/p>\n
I was resourceful with what I had. I enjoyed starting small businesses, making art, playing dress up and boutique. I enjoyed packing off on adventures just down the road, to the neighborhood creek. I loved reading mystery novels, putting on dance recitals and plays for the adults, starting a summer school for neighborhood kids. A latchkey kid, I was often alone, and before technology, it was just me and my imagination. Boredom was another word for just not being interested \u2013 and I was.<\/p>\n
It was having the options, to explore my imagination and curiosities, that I really dug.<\/p>\n
This is something living in Hawaii has given me, that connection to that part of myself who enjoys meandering and learning, creating, discovering, and simply discovering stillness within. I\u2019m more of a generalist than ever before- learning a little bit about this, a little of that, even if conditioning occasionally argues that I should focus on just one thing, which is what culture taught me.<\/p>\n
As adults we look for a sense of purpose, meaning, mission. Then, seek experts to help us figure out why we don\u2019t feel strongly or passionately about something \u201cout there\u201d but we do feel something \u201cin here\u201d, like a love for animals, or the pleasure we take in solving mystery novels. \u00a0Maybe our quest has been off mark.\u00a0 As children, we did not need a reason for doing what we were drawn toward, naturally moved to do. \u00a0We don\u2019t question our different-ness from those around us till we are taught to do so.<\/p>\n
We didn\u2019t ask our self to justify our life, demanding PURPOSE and PASSION.<\/p>\n
(can you see how the \u201cNew Age?\u201d movement has its own conditioning to unravel?)<\/p>\n
We didn\u2019t demand specialization, getting good at just one thing and sticking with that.<\/p>\n
(we were more like butterflies, as children. Engaged in exploring our environment.)<\/p>\n
We didn\u2019t have to prove our worth, that we deserved to exist, to be who we are as we are.<\/p>\n
(way back, daily corporate life left me feeling I had to justify my very existence, monetarily)<\/p>\n
We simply followed our curiosity, trusting that to lead us to everywhere we wanted to be.<\/p>\n
In Follow the Moonlit Path<\/em><\/a>, I asked the question: What do you like to do when no one else is looking? That is your True North, your key to centeredness, inner stability and contentment.<\/p>\n It may or may not appear to be the same thing as your calling but is intrinsic to it. Just as a tree cannot flower for the world without having a well-nourished hidden root system, everything we do that is \u201cinvisible\u201d to the outer world, but nurtures our Soul within, supports all that we are. Reading, exploring, creating, engaging our fascination\u2026fertilizer for a full, rich, flowering.<\/p>\n This pandemic time has been especially potent opportunity for reconnecting with what truly nourishes our Spirit(s). Disruption has a way of opening doors for new ways of being to surface and finally breathe. I\u2019ve been giving myself more and more permission to be exactly where I am. To the tune of the go-go-go manic energy outside of me having necessarily slowed down, the neurotic voices that tell me I should be elsewhere quieted down, as well. I\u2019m getting softer, more allowing towards myself. I\u2019m indulging my love for stillness and solitude. I\u2019m giving myself greater degrees of permission to do and receive the things I enjoy; I give to myself for no other reason than to experience myself receiving what I held out on, longed to receive, for so long.<\/p>\n I am lighter in Spirit.<\/em> Yes, I’ve decided to LIGHTEN UP. I am not taking things so seriously nowadays, mostly in my inner work, but it is transforming everything, how I respond to my partner, his stressors. I’m not being so reactive. I’m lighter toward myself. It truly is a decision anyone can make —\u00a0 it is only a decision away!<\/p>\n I\u2019m not complaining about what I don\u2019t have, what\u2019s not in front of me. I am not lamenting what I can no longer do. I relish what I\u2019m being given. I am doing things I was too distracted to do when I had so many options, or others created distractions that kept me externally focused. This feels against the grain.<\/em> Many do not feel this way (I also acknowledge that my health and resources have not been impacted; I speak only from and to this perspective.)<\/p>\n If you are having difficulty with the isolation of this period\u2026 spend a little time ruminating about what you loved as a child. There were so many good options then, as there are now, when you choose to see through these eyes. There is something to invent. Someone to become, in your imagination. New streets to explore. And oh, the limitations of childhood \u2013 scant resources, no way to get anywhere, and often no playmates- gave rise to creativity, and some of the happiest times many will ever know. That, and the suspension of forward moving time\u2026the feeling that time is slow and drawn out\u2026 is something we all acutely felt as children. Yes, we have that now, too.<\/p>\n What did you love to do as a child? This week: can you give yourself permission to do a few of those things? Can you lighten up?<\/em><\/p>\n With very little worth paying attention to in mainstream culture, when you think about it, there\u2019s no better time than this very prolonged pause to sink into the rich, moist fertilizer of your Soul and check out what\u2019s been fermenting there while you\u2019d been too busy to look\u2026May you give yourself permission to explore and be the person you have most longed for: YOU.<\/p>\n Love,<\/p>\n Jessica<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n The post What Did You Love as a Child?<\/a> appeared first on Jessica Shepherd<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “What did you love to do as a child?” I asked my Leo Sun husband. He instantly replied: go to Radio Shack and get the battery of the week, then figure out where to use it. He loved leatherwork (he and I both. I, too, enjoyed visiting the Tandy leather store). He also loved to […]<\/p>\n The post What Did You Love as a Child?<\/a> appeared first on Jessica Shepherd<\/a>.<\/p>\n